Surely you know someone, or yourself, who can’t stand listening to other people’s nausea or being next to a person while they vomit. The act of vomiting is not pleasant for anyone, but for some people it is a much more serious inconvenience.
Within the wide range of phobias that a person can develop we find emetophobia, the fear of vomiting and vomiting. As with all phobias, it is an irrational fear that also limits the life of those who suffer from it. If you suspect that you may suffer from this affliction, you should learn more about what it consists of and its symptoms, as well as its treatment.
Emetophobia is the irrational fear of vomiting and the act of vomiting, as well as nausea. When we talk about a phobia, it does not simply mean that those who suffer from emetophobia dislike vomiting, but that they actually suffer from an exaggerated fear with consequences in their lives.
In this regard, from the El Prado blog Psychologists clarify that “for something to become problematic, and in this case phobic, it has to be having an impact on our daily lives.” “This means that we end up modifying our lives to try to avoid, at all costs, the appearance of the object, or action, towards which we have developed a phobia. In this case vomiting or the act of vomiting. It is a fear that is not functional because it limits us,” they add.
Emetophobia is included in anxiety disorders. These involve an irrational fear of the root of the phobia, with increased anxiety about its presence or possible appearance. Likewise, it brings with it avoidance behaviors in order to avoid facing what is feared.
They point out in the aforementioned blog that the symptoms that identify emetophobia are, in any situation that may involve the possibility of vomiting: palpitations, heat, sweating, blurred vision, feeling of instability and difficulty breathing. But it also brings with it situations that help identify that we are really dealing with a case of vomiting phobia.
Among them, conditioning their social life such as going out to eat or taking a trip, for fear that something feels bad or not being able to avoid remembering the last time they had to vomit, as well as not stopping thinking about all those things that could cause vomiting.
In the aforementioned blog they also point out that the person has eating problems, for fear that something feels bad and makes them vomit. Consequently, they experience weight loss and lack of energy.
To remedy emetophobia it is necessary to go to psychological therapy. Thus, professionals resort to techniques such as EMDR, hypnosis, EFT, relaxation and visualization techniques. With all this, the objective is to find the root of fear, be able to face it and overcome it.
